Now Murray is to the manners born

ANDY MURRAY has added yet another weapon to his already bristling armoury.

Not only is he stronger, fitter and faster than ever. Not only is he one of the best tacticians in the business and the best returner in the game. But now he is one of the sport’s great charmers.[>

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Murray had just won a second consecutive Masters Series title, taking the Madrid Masters with a relatively straightforward 6-4, 7-6 success against Gilles Simon, the world No16, but he knew there was still work to do.[>

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“I’m sorry, I’m sorry” he said to the 9,600 Spaniards who had dearly wished to watch one of their own, world No1 Rafael Nadal, at the tournament’s climax.[>

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“I know you would have liked to have seen Roger Federer and Nadal in the final. But thanks for coming to support us instead.[>

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“And I’m sorry I can’t speak to you in Spanish. I lived here but I never learnt to speak the language. But I promise you that if I have to do this again next year, I will make the speech in Spanish.”[>

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If Murray continues in his current form, he may have to learn a lot of languages because he will be making a lot of winner’s speeches.[>

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Throughout the week he has played brilliantly when given the opportunity. He has played aggressively when required and, yesterday, he played as well as he needed to in order to beat the exhausted Simon.[>

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And the Spaniards have loved him for it.[>

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By winning his second Masters Series title of the year, Murray is rubbing shoulders with the great and the good.[>

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In the past five years only five men have won two of the crystal shields in a season and that list makes impressive reading: Nadal, Federer, Novak Djokovic, Marat Safin and David Nalbandian. And now there is Scotland’s Murray.[>

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No Briton had ever won two titles at this level and yet Murray has managed to do it in the space of three months. The records of both Greg Rusedski and Tim Henman seem to be paling.[>

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“There were a lot of things today that were huge for me,” said Murray.[>

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“Although Tim and Greg achieved a lot more things than I have over a long period of time, I have done something that neither of them were able to do. And Tim was obviously a great player for eight or nine years. That’s how tough it is to win a Masters Series.[>

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“The ones that I have won, it’s not like I’ve beaten bad players as I’ve beaten Federer and Djokovic in the last two that I’ve won.[>

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“And I beat Djokovic in the one before where I lost in the semis. So I’ve had to beat good players to do it consistently. And it’s great to make my own little bit of history.”[>

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This victory was all the more sweet because it was the first time that Murray had been the hunted rather than the hunter.[>

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When he won at the Cincinnati Masters, he was the underdog to Djokovic in the final and when he reached the US Open final, he was playing the mighty Federer. This time, even though he is two years younger than his opponent, Murray was the man with experience, big titles and a seeded spot in the draw.[>

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He was expected to win, and that brings a whole new raft of pressures.[>

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“I played a longish match against Federer in the semi-finals,” he said. “And emotionally it’s difficult to play against someone like him. To come out the next day and play a match you’re expected to win reasonably comfortably is tough.”[>

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Poor Simon, though, was almost out on his feet. He had taken nearly three and a half hours to beat Nadal on Saturday, bringing his total court time before the final to nearly 12 hours.[>

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For all that he tried to run and compete – sometimes cracking winners from nowhere and always finding a little extra puff to carry him on – he was never a match for Murray.[>

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Only in the charm stakes could Simon challenge. In every round and with every hour he has sweated it out on court, he has smiled.[>

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Now, with his ranking moving into the top 10, he is in with a chance of getting into the Masters Cup in Shanghai and was grinning all the more. Alas, yesterday, a winning smile was never going to be enough.[>